Due, at least in part, to the rise of the Internet and other means of communicating massive amounts of data, users are often confronted with large amounts of poorly organized, outdated, or irrelevant data. As a result, users are often forced to sort through this large amount of data manually in order to find information they are seeking.
One non-limiting example illustrating such a problem is the current use of data tree hierarchies to graphically present data to a user. Data tree hierarchies are often encountered in discussion forums, blogs, websites, and computer applications, but they may also be found in other environments as well. Existing data tree hierarchies suffer from one to several problems that minimize their effectiveness to users. For example, some current systems utilizing data tree hierarchies may fail to allow individual contributions from multiple networked users; these current systems may further fail to allow those users to effectively manipulate the position of their, or others', contributions in the context of the data tree hierarchy. Some current systems may not be effectively usable by multiple users that lack mutual trust to manage or edit information together or collaboratively. Existing data tree hierarchy systems may also lack one or more features that would, if included, increase their usefulness, including, but not limited to, effective search techniques, effective permission level customization, summary features, spreadsheet or other data integration features, as well as others. Other non-limiting examples of problems with current systems utilizing data tree hierarchies are also found, including, but not limited to, the limitations described below and herein.